Why are Japanese voice actors almost always superior to English voice actors?

[The Summoner of Leviathan]

As a sidenote, French dubs of English sitcoms are horrible.

[Zeromus_X]

While this may have been true in the past, English voice acting has improved greatly in recent years. I have many favorite English and Japanese voice actors, I never always favor one dub or another (unless in the case that one dub is unbearably bad).

[ShunNakamura]

As a note I am really curious on why the lip sync is considered absolutely necessary. I would rather have the correct dialog/etc than properly synced lips.

Hmm.. for example the Miyazaki Films are certainly what I would consider a solid dub. Heck, I watched the Marathan that was on AMC* that dealt with Miyazaki. They had both Subs and Dubs that they showed. And in several cases I preferred the Dubs overall[even given if it was one of his films I hadn't seen up till that point]. Anyways the point I was aiming for is I just plugged in my old Castle In the Sky VHS and I noticed that the lip sync was off. Not by much, but it was something I recalled noticing before in that particular film[and as a note, Castle in the Sky was one of the Dubs I really did like; I wish I would have recorded the subtitled version when they aired it so I could compare the differences].
*I think it was AMC anyways.


I also want to say that the English Dubbing scene is getting far better. I did fear ADV Films would butcher Utawarerumono when they dubbed it; however, they did a fairly good job from what I have seen of it(bits and pieces for evaluation purposes). And heck, it looks like they even managed to lip sync with little dialog change. An A class Dub from what I have seen.



And yes I have no life, if I get the chance I'll watch the subtitled version right beside the dubbed version just to compare(and I will do it with Utawarerumono when I get the chance).

[Madame Adequate]

It could well suck ass and we just don't know because we don't actually speak Japanese like a native, and thus can't hear how retarded the intonation and pacing actually is.

[DK]

It could well suck ass and we just don't know because we don't actually speak Japanese like a native, and thus can't hear how retarded the intonation and pacing actually is.

Beat me to it.